William Arthur Shaw (1865–1943) was an English historian and archivist.
Life
Born on 19 April 1865, in Hooley Hill,
Ashton-under-Lyne, now in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
, he was the son of James Shaw and his wife Sarah Ann Hampshire. He graduated
B.A. at
Owens College in 1883.
Shaw worked for the
Chetham Society, and then the
Public Record Office, as an editor. In 1940 he was elected a Fellow of the
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
. He died on 15 April 1943.
The majority of his later life was devoted to the
calendaring of
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
records of the later
Stuart
Stuart may refer to:
Names
* Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile
*Stuart (automobile)
Places
Australia Generally
*Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory
Northe ...
and early
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
period, between 1660 and 1745. These were published with extensive introductions, charting his view of the development of the national financial administration and other topics, and often challenging the received wisdom. F.H. Slingsby, who brought Shaw's posthumous final volumes to press, considered that the "animosities" expressed in some of these introductions were "usually well founded"; although
P.G.M. Dickson considered that "Shaw's views were curiously vehement and often based on inaccurate data, and must be treated with caution." In particular, Shaw's summary tables of revenue and expenditure have been found to be incorrect, failing to take into account some of the intricate accounting devices of the time, leading him to incorrect conclusions.
Shaw also wrote a substantial number of entries for the ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''.
[See eg Wikisource Author:William Arthur Shaw.]
Works
* 5 vols, covering 1729–1745.
* 32 vols, covering 1660–1718. Volumes 20 ''et seq'' published posthumously.
* 3 vols
vol 1vol 2vol 3
*
1 vol
* 2 vols
vol 1vol 2
* 2 vols
vol 1vol 2
References
Further reading
* J. H. Clapham (1943), "William Arthur Shaw, 1865–1943", ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', 29, 349–55
External links
*
William Arthur Shaw Manuscripts
John Rylands Library, University of Manchester
1865 births
1943 deaths
19th-century English historians
English archivists
Fellows of the British Academy
People from Ashton-under-Lyne
20th-century English historians
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